Loans and High Yield

The euro high yield bond pipeline brought five deals to the market this week, as secondary yield spreads and payoff expectations tightened, partially reversing recent trends.

Agile Group Holdings printed a smaller-than-expected $200m bond on Wednesday, struggling to source demand in spite of a generous yield, raising questions about the timing of the transaction.

Graham Tufts has left his position as vice chairman of leveraged and acquisition finance at HSBC and is understood to be joining Royal Bank of Canada in a senior role.

Four borrowers took advantage of a barren US high yield market on Tuesday to price drive by deals, including a second deal in the past two weeks from offshore drilling company Transocean.

HSBC has hired two bankers, one from Credit Suisse and one from UBS, to strengthen its business with private equity firms and in offering leveraged financing.

Ronshine China Holdings reopened a 2021 bond on Tuesday, adding $225m to a three year puttable line sealed in January this year. The deal is the latest in a series of capital raising exercises designed to ease the firm’s refinancing burden.

Indian business process outsourcing company Aegis has closed a $150m leveraged buyout loan after a seven-month syndication process that attracted only three participants.

Norwegian car parts manufacturer Kongsberg Automotive is refinancing loans in the high yield market with a deal that offers investors the biggest double-B coupon seen since April.

Specialty chemicals distributor Azelis offered a €1bn loan deal to fund its acquisition by EQT this week. It has pre-placed almost half of it amid widening margins in the European leveraged loan market.

VFS Global, a tech services specialist for governments across the world, is reducing the cost of its subordinated debt by increasing the size of its term loans ‘B’ to pay down more expensive second lien loans.

Canvest Environmental Protection Group Company has increased its latest offshore borrowing to HK$1.409bn ($180m).

The quality of Asian high yield bond covenants dropped to an all-time low in the last quarter. Chinese property developers, making the most of a buoyant market, have been cited as the biggest cause. But as the region’s primary bond market continues to struggle, it’s unclear if that push for looser standards can continue.